FM: Hungary will reject introduction of global minimum tax

Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has confirmed Hungary will reject the introduction of a global minimum tax, arguing that such a measure would entail tax increases in the country.

 

“It has become clear over the past decade that raising taxes is a dead-end-street,” Minister Szijjártó told MTI after a meeting with Mathias Cormann, the incoming secretary-general of the OECD, in Paris. “The most effective incentives for creating jobs and triggering economic growth are tax cuts.”

“Nobody has the right to intervene from abroad in Hungary’s tax policies,” Minister Szijjártó added, insisting that defining tax brackets should remain Hungary’s sovereign right. He said one of the keys to Hungary’s competitiveness was that it had the lowest payroll and corporate tax rates in Europe, adding that countries that had been less disciplined than Hungary had been unable to cut taxes.

At the same time, the minister supported initiatives aimed at settling the issue of how tech giants should be taxed, arguing that these companies ought to pay taxes where they operate. “We shouldn’t allow tech giants to enjoy an unfair competitive advantage in the absence of international tax regulation!” he said, attributing to the OECD a key role in settling the matter in a satisfactory manner.